Buying Web Services: The Survival Guide to Outsourcing
Foreword: Learning from Web History
Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., is a principal
of the Nielsen
Norman Group, a user experience consulting firm. Until July 1998 he
was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer and the company's Web usability
guru. Nielsen writes the bi-weekly Alertbox
column on Web usability (readership: 4 million page views per year). Dr.
Nielsen coined the term "discount usability engineering" and has invented
several usability techniques for fast and cheap improvements in user interfaces.
He is the author of the best-selling books "Multimedia and Hypertext:
The Internet and Beyond" (AP Professional, 1995) and "Usability Engineering"
(paperback edition published by AP Professional, 1994) and co-editor,
with Robert Mack, of the definitive work "Usability Inspection Methods"
(WIley, 1996). The New York Times called him "the smartest person on the
Web," and WebWeek dubbed him "among the Web's most recognized human-interface
experts." His next book, "Designing Excellent Web Sites: Secrets of an
Information Architect" will be published in January 1999.
Introduction from the Author
JP Frenza
Chapter 1: In or Out? An Outsourcing Overview
JP Frenza
JP Frenza worked in publishing
and the pharmaceutical industry prior to joining United
Digital Artists, a new media talent agency, where he served as Vice
President of Marketing and Business Development. He is the co-author of
the critically-acclaimed "Web & New Media Pricing Guide" (Hayden, 1996)
and has consulted with a number of high-technology clients including Apple
Computer, IBM and the Microsoft Corporation. He currently serves as director
of the Earth
Pledge Foundation's Web group, Sustainable Media, a full-service new
media agency that creates and manages educational seminars, hands-on workshops,
Web site development, marketing assistance and special projects for the
non-profit and corporate community. Earth Pledge clients include: Microsoft,
IBM, George Soros' Open Society Institute, Metropolis Magazine, Artemide,
Joe Breeze Cycles and more.
The decision to develop a Web site in-house or to work with an outside
Web developer is a significant one requiring careful participation and
review from many departments and individuals at a company. This chapter
provides an overview on outsourcing Web services as it takes a look at
the state of outsourcing today, examines arguments for and against Web
outsourcing, presents outsourcing scenarios for small, medium and large
businesses, and offers insight into helping you determine whether your
company is the type of organization that can outsource effectively. Finally,
a review of the Web development process as well as key members of a Web
team and a snapshot of some of the Web teams from highly-respected Web
development firms provides you with a sound basis for moving forward as
you work with a subcontractor to shape your Internet presence.
1) Determine the real numbers--how much are you willing to spend?; 2)
Look in the mirror--evaluate whether or not your company, and its corporate
culture, are good outsourcing partners; 3) Gut check--what part of the
Web development process can you or your company contribute? All, some
or none?
Chapter 2: Determining Your Goals and Drafting an RFP
Sarah Cooper
Sarah Cooper is the director
of business development at vivid
studios, a leading Internet architect based in San Francisco's famed
Multimedia Gulch. Sarah's responsibilities include overseeing vivid's
team of executive producers and account managers, as well as the development
of what vivid calls "new processes and metrics in the areas of sales and
project priorities, profitability, client management, employee training,
and management effectiveness."
This chapter takes you step-by-step through the important initial phases
of determining your project goals and creating an effective Request for
Proposal (RFP). You'll also learn how to maximize your company's expertise
in a way that will enable you to work effectively with your Web developer,
create a project scope that will highlight the capabilities of your company
and your project team, define the evaluation process that best suits the
strengths and culture of your company, create an effective RFP, and set
up your project for success from day one.
1) Choose your approach--Request for Information (RFI), Venture Launch
or Single Project Request for Proposal (RFP); 2) List three reasons why
a busy Web developer should consider your project (no cheating, money
and fame don't count); 3) Review your organization's goals and establish
a Web Mission Statement.
Chapter 3: The Right Developer--Evaluating Proposals, Budgets and
the Final Decision
Aliza Sherman
Aliza Sherman is the author of
the best-selling book "Cybergrrl: A Women's Gguide to the World Wide Web"
(Ballantine, 1997). Sherman is the president of Cybergrrl,
Inc., a media and entertainment company specializing in content and
resources for women online. Newsweek Magazine called her one of the top
50 people who matter most on the Net.
This chapter offers insight into a nearly impossible task: choosing the
right Web developer for your project. Not only does your developer need
to know intimately rather complex technology, but they must also know
your business, be pleasant to work with, and have pricing structures that
you and your budget can live with. Although there is no guarantee that
the final decision you make will indeed be the most appropriate one, there
are some things that you can do to maximize your chances of finding the
perfect client/developer match. First, You can analyze your potential
developer's business model and position in the industry to determine whether
or not it is consistent with that of your company. You can also figure
out if the developer's focus on a given type of technology is the right
mix for you and your business. There are also some warning signs that
you can look for in the proposals and the budgets that the developer submits
as part of the pitch for your business. What you should look out for,
the do's and don'ts of finding a Web developer, are all found in this
chapter.
1) What's the Model--what type of developer are you considering working
with and is their business model compatible with yours?; 2) Timeline--does
the proposal have an adequate timeline and can you live with it?; 3) Numerology--did
the developer provide an adequate rationale for the number presented in
the proposal? Or is it just a lump sum figure that could have come from
anywhere?
Chapter 4: Understanding Design
Peter Seidler
Peter Seidler is the Chief Creative
Officer of Razorfish,
a leading New York City Web development firm. He was named Chief Creative
Officer after the company merged with Avalanche, the pioneering Silicon
Alley Web shop Seidler founded in 1994. Seidler's forward-thinking design
and technology vision have provided the creative direction for such clients
as The Warner Music Group, Guardian Insurance, Sotheby's International
Realty, and the famed Carnegie Hall. Prior to joining Razorfish, Seidler
developed successful interactive communications projects for such corporate
clients as Bankers Trust, Cosmopolitan magazine, Elektra Entertainment,
KPMG, Con Edison, FAO Schwarz, NBC, Price Waterhouse, and Viacom. He is
widely recognized as an expert on design and technology and is a frequent
contributor at design conferences and Internet industry events and serves
as an adjunct professor at New York University's well-known Interactive
Telecommunications Program (ITP). His work has been featured in "Creative
Web Design" (Michael Baumbardt, Springer-Verlag, 1998) and "Creative Killer
Web Sites" (David Siegel, Hayden Books, 1997); and he serves as judge
of prestigious advertising awards events such as Communication Arts, The
Clio's, and The One Club. An active member of the New York New Media Association
and the Association of Graphic Designers, Seidler holds a BA in philosophy
from New York York University and an MFA in conceptual art from the California
Institute of the Arts. He later completed post-graduate work at the Whitney
Museum's Independent Study Program, and his conceptual art projects are
in the collections of Peter Norton, Walt Disney, Bonnie Raitt, and the
Museum of Modern Art.
Similar to great art, everyone has strong opinions as to what constitutes
good design. This chapter won't make you a design connoisseur any more
than an art history class will make you a qualified art critic. Our purpose
is to define the function of good design, review some highly successful
designs, and, more important, gain insight into the challenges and factors
of creating those designs from the perspective of one of the leading design
pioneers in the Web development industry. This chapter looks at the fundamental
steps of design activity--from defining need, the research process, incubation
and immersion, to preliminary design, detailed design production planning,
and production. Last, we present a look at the types of documents that
designers use to assist them in the creative process, such as creative
briefs, design strategies, and navigation architecture documents.
1) Identify your company brand--what is the look you want your company
to have on the Web?; 2) Define your site's audience--what are the technology
requirements?; 3) Develop a design document and site architecture. Have
you shared this document with key groups at your company?
Chapter 5: Planning Your Technology Infrastructure and Site Hosting
Chris Bryant
Chris Bryant is the CEO and founding
partner of T3 Media,
one of the most respected and largest independent interactive agencies
in New York City. He has more than a decade of technology-related experience
including five years of Internet-related development work. Chris is considered
a pioneer in the New York new media community, and his company has produced
some of the most notable Web sites across a diverse range of industries
including technology, finance, media, and entertainment. Sites produced
by his company include development projects for Microsoft, Digital Equipment
Corporation, American Express, and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Bryant is
considered an industry expert on the topics of site hosting, database-delivered
Web projects, and technology planning as well as client management, customer
service, and the general business and financial state of the Web development
industry.
Few aspects of Web site development are as critical, complicated, and
costly as analyzing your site's infrastructure and budgeting for site
hosting. Every Web site has unique infrastructure needs, and every developer
will approach those needs from a perspective that they have honed after
years of creating and hosting Web sites. Of course, new hardware, software,
computers, and telecommunications technology require the constant evaluation
of infrastructure and site hosting options. As the Web becomes more central
to your business and the complexity of your site increases, you can be
sure that infrastructure and site hosting capabilities will grow along
with it. Gone are the days in which you could call up an Internet Service
Provider (ISP), register a URL, and fill 25 megabytes of server space
with HTML files. Infrastructure needs and hosting capabilities require
a great deal of understanding about the Internet, server capacity, and
the technological needs of your current and future site. This chapter
begins with a look at proper infrastructure and hosting planning, takes
you through the process of constructing a technology plan for site hosting,
and provides a strategy that you can use to review your Web site's needs
and map those needs to the appropriate site hosting options. While a good
Web developer should help you handle this part of site development (after
all, you did outsource your site, right?), it behooves you to understand
in as much detail as possible the decision you make as well as the budget
implications of those decisions. In fact, many of the issues addressed
in this chapter (such as what percentage site hosting should be in your
total budget) have not received much coverage in trade publications. Finally,
this chapter takes you through the information you need in order to choose
a host solution. The chapter concludes with an analysis of whether or
not it is more cost effective to build your own infrastructure and host
your Web site yourself, or buy site hosting services from a Web developer
and/or ISP.
1) Prepare your Web hosting budget and be sure to plan for a three year
business cycle; 2) Make sure your site is registered in your name in order
to protect your business interests; 3) Compare the costs of hosting your
Web site in house or out of house--what do the numbers say?
Chapter 6: Covering Your Legal Bases
Jerrold
B. Spiegel
Jerrold B. Spiegel, Esq. is a
well-known figure on the New York Web development scene. Jerry has a reputation
for working not only as an attorney but as business advisor, cheerleader
and friend for numerous start-up Web development firms in addition to
a large corporate client base. He is a 1973 cum laude graduate of NYU
Law School and a member of the New York-based law firm Frankfurt,
Garbus, Klein & Selz, which represents clients primarily in the media
and entertainment industries. Jerry is the head of the New Media Practice
Group at Frankfurt, Garbus, which is involved in all areas of interactive
media. He has advised software and online companies since 1985 and has
written and lectured extensively on the impact of interactive media and
currently edits the Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein & Selz New Media News.
Covering your legal bases is one of the most important elements to consider
when outsourcing your Web site. If you don't pay sufficient attention
to the legal aspects of your Web business, you could end up in litigation
or worse: your business could lose valuable assets including your logo,
brand, or the site itself. In some cases, you could be sued and risk facing
damages in court. This chapter offers a look at all of the legal issues
to consider as you develop your site, ranging from domain names and trademarks,
data collection, privacy, libel, Web site jurisdiction, and Web site ownership
to copyright, intellectual property rights, and other important legal
considerations. Finally, this chapter presents a sample legal contract
that you can use as a guideline for working with your Web developer.
1) Get an attorney that you are comfortable with; 2) Have you taken the
necessary measures to protect the ownership of your Web site? 3) Do you
have a signed contract with your Web developer?
Chapter 7: Managing Web Projects
Bill Seitz
Bill Seitz graduated from Cornell
University with a degree in operations research and industrial engineering
and later earned his MBA in finance and marketing from Columbia University
before going on to work at several health care, media, business, consulting,
and technology firms. He was an initial founding member of Medscape,
where he serves as vice president of technology. Medscape, generally recognized
as the Yahoo of medical information, is a premier Web site delivering
patient care information to physicians and other members of the medical
profession.
Project management is one of the trickiest aspects of creating a successful,
long-term Web site. It gets even more difficult when you add outsourcing
to the mix. This is partially due to the fact that both client and developer
are likely to have an infrastructure and procedures in place to manage
large-scale, long-term projects. Outsourcing forces two distinct businesses
to blend their approach to maximize efficiency when working with one another,
which is easier said than done. Outsourcing also relies on outstanding
and open communication--still a challenge in our high-tech, communications-savvy
age. Software tools such as Microsoft's Project Pro offer some hope, but
they don't often reflect the dynamic nature of constantly evolving organizations.
Finally, good management is hard, and the volatile nature of the Web doesn't
make it any easier. Surprisingly, books and trade publications have not
featured much discussion on the topic of Web site project management.
This chapter is an excellent step in the right direction toward remedying
that situation. It begins with advice on issues such as the evangelism
of a project within a company to ensure its voice, presence, and survival
in an organization (one of the many tasks that a good project manager
must tackle). The chapter provides an overview of the project design life
cycle and offers insight into procedures for ongoing site maintenance,
semirepetitive site development aspects, adding new project components,
and project portfolio management. Finally, the chapter concludes with
an examination of how to manage the implementation of project elements
that alter the structure of your Web site, incorporating less significant
individual project considerations into your project, and covers the topic
of "closing the loop" on Web site developments.
1) Create a list of key people in your organization that must approve
and fund your Web project--communicate with the people on that list; 2)
Create a list of project management tasks for your site divided into core
goals, maintenance, semi-repetitive and new site development tasks; 3)
Create a procedure for managing Web site feedback from internal groups
and external site visitors.
Chapter 8: When Things Go Wrong
Julia Rubinic
Julia Rubinic began her career
in interactive media for the consumer and commercial market more than
six years ago. She started out as a CD-ROM producer on topics such as
the Civil War and Shakespeare. For the last two years, she's concentrated
on working with corporate clients seeking to enhance their presence on
the Internet. She is currently a producer at R/GA
Interactive, a high-end, Web developer that is a subset of the well-known
special effects film, video, and imaging firm, R/GA Associates.
"Anticipation" is perhaps a more appropriate title for this chapter because
Web development experts recognize that it's better to anticipate potential
problems rather than attempt to manage them "when things go wrong." This
chapter provides a framework for creating an environment and a set of
procedures that will help you work with your Web developer to reduce potential
problems as you build your site. Many of the steps you can take to prevent
problems--such as planning and prioritizing your goals, getting over the
production bumps, and confronting problems--can be by communicating effectively
with your Web developer. This chapter takes a look at the key problems
that are likely to occur as they relate to the issues of design, technology,
and usability, and suggests strategies for anticipating and managing them
along the way.
1) Set your priorities--if push comes to shove what are the most important
aspects of your Web site and which are you willing to live without?; 2)
Have you established a procedure for regular communication with your Web
developer?; Establish a procedure for Web site review--what are the steps?
Chapter 9: Working with Multiple Sub-Contractors
Matt Carmichael
Matt Carmichael is the online
editor for Advertising Age and Advertising Age's Business Marketing magazines.
He is the main editorial contact at http://www.adage.com
and netb2b.com.
He also conducts NetMarketing's Web Price Index, a monthly survey of Web
development costs, and writes for Ad Age's Interactive Media & Marketing
section.
There are times when working with one Web developer will not meet your
needs and it makes sense to work with multiple developers in order to
accomplish your goals. For example, say your company already has a firm
that's programmed and maintained your database for years, providing exemplary
service. What do you do if you want to continue using that company as
you move to the Web, but they aren't designers and can't come up with
an eye-catching creative look for your site? You'll quickly find yourself
on the hunt for a solid design studio and along with that you will be
in the midst of working with multiple subcontractors. It's a process that
presents its own unique management challenges. Navigating those challenges
is the subject of this chapter.
1) Sign contracts with both developers; 2) Share those contracts with
each developer--open communication is the key successfully working with
multiple subcontractors; 3) What's the procedure for sign-offs--which
subcontractor goes first?
Daniel J. Barrett, Ph.D, is the
author of the incredibly useful "NetResearch: Finding Information Online"(O'Reilly
& Associates, Inc., 1997). He is also the Internet columnist for Keyboard
Magazine and serves as the head of system operations for a Wall Street
financial software company.
After much hard work with your Web developer, your business's Web site
is finally designed, debugged, and hosted. Now it's time to attract visitors.
What's the best way to publicize your site? Potential customers must know
about your Web site and be able to find it, or else the site won't be
able to help your business, no matter how many bells and whistles the
site has. You can expect that Web developers have some basic knowledge
of Web site marketing, but you can't be sure they will know all of the
ins and outs of effectively using search engines, marketing your site,
and managing public relations and advertising. By now you might realize
that the more you know, the more successfully you can manage your relationship
with your developer. Besides, in some cases, the task of marketing your
business online might fall to you, and even if you've contracted your
developer to do it, you will still want to know as much about the process
as you can. It is, after all, your business. This chapter provides background
information on how a Web developer might publicize your Web site and market
your product or service online, through both traditional means (i.e.,
advertising) and Internet-only techniques. The major topics we'll cover
are: Internet search engines, online marketing and public relations, the
three basics of Internet marketing, and advertising.
1) Register with the major search engines; 2) Advertise on the major Web
sites relevant to your industry which appear at the top of the search
engines; 3) Be sure to carefully proof and review all of the marketing
correspondence your company posts on your Web site and in links and usenet
groups--remember what you post can stay around for a long time.
Chapter 11: Going Forward: Next Gen Sites and Building an E-Business
Devajit Mukherjee
Devajit Mukherjee is currently
at MIT's Sloan School of Business with plans to return to IBM
in mid-1999. Dev has held a number of positions at IBM, and most recently
was director of Internet marketing in IBM's server group. IBM's server
product line extends from Intel-based NT servers to mainframe-class machines,
including the infamous IBM SPÑor Deep BlueÑsystem that beat Kasparov at
chess and powered the official Super Bowl and Olympics Web sites. Before
the server group, Dev ran Internet operations for IBM's personal computer
and consumer divisions. This included the development of a publishing
system to support local country Web sites around the globe, community
Web areas to deliver customer service, support, and electronic commerce.
These initiatives were some of IBM's first steps toward becoming an e-business.
Prior to moving to the United States, Dev led the launch for and ran IBM's
ThinkPad business in Europe. Before joining IBM, Dev worked for Stratus
Computer and Citibank's European Technology Office.
This chapter is about what happens after you've built your first Web site,
a process that is often referred to in books and magazines as the creation
of the "second-generation site" or "next-generation" site. Second-generation
sites are much more than marketing bolt-ons, they are fully integrated
into your core business, forming a significant channel to key company
stakeholders (customers, employees, partners, shareholders or all of the
above). This chapter walks you through the challenging process of evolving
your Web presence from your first-generation Web pages to a fully integrated,
value-adding second-generation site, transforming your business into an
e-business. Throughout, the author offers insights and suggestions regarding
what it takes to make your company an e-business, how to decide what you
want, establish and plan for site infrastructure, and develop and choose
a plan for technology selection. Some parts of this chapter focus on how
experts at IBM have approached this important process. That's no surprise
given that it was written by an employee of IBM, and the fact that IBM
is, I believe, the world's largest Web developer and technology supplier.
In fact, IBM was one of the creators of NSFNet, the starting point for
today's Internet. While some of the examples are indeed "IBM centric,"
the lessons to be learned are universal.
1) What intellectual capital does your company have that you can put up
on your Web site--how will it transform your business? 2) Model your business
and your Web site according to IBM's Network Computing Framework--what
have you learned?; 3) Test the scalability of your decisions.
Chapter 12: Web Resources Directory
Felix Kramer
Felix Kramer has a background
in business development, editorial start-ups and online promotions for
innovative products and services. His company, Kramer Communications,
specializes in online promotion and marketing. In 1997, he started Constructors,
an online database that would provide information about Web developers
across the nation for companies researching firms to assist them in "constructing"
their Web site, Intranet or Extranet. A long-time New Yorker, Felix is
one of the many converts to the West Coast way of living and is currently
a resident of Silicon Alley. In addition to having an excellent pulse
on the best information sources for the Web development industry, he was
also the author of the first definitive guide to making money on desktop
publishing.
Read Chapter 12 the Web
Resources Directory Online
Chapter 13: The Web Roundtable:
Proceedings from a Discussion in New York City, June 5, 1998
Read Chapter 13: The Web
Roundtable Online
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ISBN 0-471-31289-4
400 pages
October, 1998
Wiley
Computer Publishing
Timely. Practical. Reliable.
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